For the second week in a row one of the head coach’s substitutes climbed off the bench to score, with Paul Lewis getting on the end of a David Amoo cross in the 83rd minute to secure the U's their third win on the bounce.

“You’re only as strong as your bench and we’ve made our changes today and got another win,” he said.

He continued: “(It) was key.

“We had a lot of combinations coming down the right. We didn’t quite attack the left-hand side today, I’ll have to have a look at that to understand why.

“Most of it came down the right which is credit to Brad (Halliday) because we put him in for his attacking intent.

“We kept persevering and eventually we found our way behind the left-back and it’s a goal we worked on in training and I’m pleased that our tactical training this week had paid off.”

It was another slog for United in front of the home fans, with very little separating the two sides for large parts of the dull encounter.

However, the head coach said that you can’t underestimate the importance of a win against a team around them in the league and one that moves them seven points clear of the bottom two.

“Resilience (was key), we spoke about it in the press conference in midweek,” he said.

“Again, (it was) not a very attractive game although saying that we had two or three chance in the first half that possibly we could have scored which could have changed the mood of the game.

“No game is easy in this league, we’ve said that.

“We’ve won another difficult game again a team in and around us, similar to last week.

“They’re big games. They’re the important games you’ve got to get something from, by hook or by crook, it’s important that we do it.

“When it’s a basement battle, they’re never easy, they’re never pretty, they’re never full of unbelievable quality.”

Dunne added: “We had the quality to come on and make a difference and it’s very important when games are like that and like I said, Grimsby will feel aggrieved, as well they might.

“But great credit to my players, we’re not a poor team, we deserve a little bit of respect and maybe the last three wins will help one or two people respect us a little bit more. That’s why I’m very, very pleased for the team.”